S.H.I.E.L.D., Lockup - Oct 25

All right. As it was seen, S4 of AoS has hit its’ stride…by staying away, (well, trying to), from the previous seasons, especially 2 and 3. Yes, this is repetition, but, despite all of AoS’s successes, its’ ratings are still falling. Why?

A show can fail for various reasons. AFO (‘Animal Face-Off’) failed because it was repetitive: while seeing various CGI models of animals fight each other on TV is fun, AFO, sadly, made it repetitive, and so it ended after just 12 episodes (1 season).

‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) has failed for a different reason – it was subjective. For example, look at ‘Theodore Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’ episode in S3. Among the weapons, the show put the American 1896 Krag Carbine against the British Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle (or Lee-Enfield Mk III). The two ‘mid-range weapons’ were tied, but the truth is that the Lee-Enfield had actually won, percentage-wise, and what’s more, one of the reasons as to why the Krag vanished into the depths of history is because while it HAD been used in the U.S. invasion of Cuba, and other wars (including WWI, albeit to a limited extent), it was unwieldy and slow to load, which became a very important factor in WWI and beyond. Yet, DW did not mention any of this, and it did do its’ best to downplay the Lee-Enfield instead, numbers or no numbers.

(This was actually another problem of DW – either the experts, the show hosts, were correct when assigning the advantage to one weapon or another, and in that case, the numbers/percentages served no real purpose. Alternatively, the numbers/percentages were correct, and in this case, the experts were no experts, but some blokes who did not know a better rifle if it shot them in the ass. Given that Robert Daly, one of the show’s stars in 2011 claimed to be a former Green Beret, but in reality he was not…yeah, DW had many problems. Period.)

Then again, we also have ‘Ancients Behaving Badly’ and ‘The Secret Life Of-‘, which ended after a single season because, not unlike AFO, they had a limited amount of info/resources that they could use – but we’re talking about TV documentary shows, and how about fictive ones?

Aye, they are trickier than the documentary shows. ‘Lost Girl’, which suffered from a chronic revision of its’ backstory and mythology, ended after 5 seasons, possibly because it became unpopular enough. ‘Primeval’ and its spin-off, ‘Primeval: New World’ ended because the company that made them, Impossible Pictures, (IP), went bankrupt, and frankly was clearly suited to running short series, such as ‘Walking with…’ documentary series, or even documentary films. OUAT (‘Once Upon a Time’) continues to air, as do various DC TV series of the CW channel. ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, (LoT) for example, suffer from a weak plot in S2 (S1 was better – so far), yet they are not doing any worse than AoS does. Why is AoS in trouble?

Again, this is not unique. The aforementioned LoT is not doing so hot itself, now that ‘Timeless’, a sci-fi (time travel) series is being aired, (and it isn’t affiliated with Marvel or DC comics). It needs to step up on its’ game…and maybe it has.

So has AoS, for that matter. It, along with the rest of MCU, has gotten rid of Hydra, which has been causing problems ever since it appeared in CA: TWS and spread to AoS and ‘Agent Carter’, sort of. If you look at such sites as Tumblr, people are STILL arguing and fighting over Hydra, whether or not it is Nazi or just fascist, and the various opinions don’t get along, but…for the fact that none of them appreciate AoS, (and Marvel in general), getting involved with Hydra – for different reasons, again, but anti-AoS and anti-Marvel.

The same went for Grant Ward – people either loved him or hated him, and fought with each other, and generally were anti-AoS in regards to the show’s treatment of the man. Why AoS made the situation so bad – they could have turned him back into a hero, (as they probably planned at first post-S1), or killed him off back in S2, or just redeemed him, as they did with Cal at the end of S2. Instead, they kept him on as a villain, (and in the second half of S3, they replaced him with Hive, sort of), and this diminished their fanbase further.

This, of course, was a more generic problem – AoS didn’t appear to respect its’ characters, (still doesn’t – just look at J.T. James/Hellfire), and that put it at a disadvantage in regards to other shows, (‘Killjoys’, ‘Dark Matter’, ‘Quantico’, ‘Blindspot’, etc.). And to make matters worse, there was a mass exodus of actors at the end of S2, too.

There were other shows who suffered this sort of problem – ‘Primeval’, for example, and LG, at the last season, but AoS S2 finale turned it into a killfest, which was too much of a good thing at best, and just a killfest at worst. They were able to get over it by the second half of S3, when Luke Mitchell, (Lincoln Campbell), left the show, turning S3, (and especially its first episode), into some sort of a mockery of itself. Karma being what it is, so far Lincoln was mentioned twice and shown (on a photo) once, period. He may have been once an integral part of the show, but now – no.

This, kind of, brings us to ‘Lockup’ the episode. It was a solidly made and delivered episode. On one hand, Daisy has to handle her own demons, on the other – so does Robbie, on the third – Simmons has to help the new director to deal with the senator who is connected to the Watchdogs on one hand, and is friendly with the new director proper on the other. It is a solid piece of planning, there are no particular plotholes, though there are faint echoes of the second half of S2, especially before the bloodbath/exodus of actors at its’ finale. But-?

There is no ‘but’, in fact. The show has begun to deliver, but it just may be too late. It has developed a reputation during the runs of S2 and S3, and it will not fix it anytime soon, especially since it is also trying to incorporate some of the previous seasons’ elements, such as the Watchdogs. We don’t know much about them, save that they are like the Guardians of Humanity or Quarrymen, or some other fictional rip-off of the KKK…which is probably how AoS (and the rest of MCU?) likes it. Hydra came with too much baggage, especially from real life, so now the show is trying to go the other way and it succeeds. Only the viewers don’t care about this sort of thing anymore, in fact, they are probably busy watching other shows, period, so it’s a case of ‘too little too late’ on top of everything else.

Anything else? No, not really. AoS is caught between going with its’ old plan, which includes Daisy, and the other InHumans, and the Watchdogs, and the new plan with the Ghost Rider, and his uncle, and the ghosts and the evil book that ISN’T the Necronomicon, really. (Though I am sure that Lovecraft would have disagreed). It is doing a decent job of balancing the two plans, so for now it is going forwards in a good way.

Hopefully, it will continue to do so in the future too. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., Fire - Oct 18

…AoS continues to deliver. (No, really). The ratings clearly continue fall. Why?

In part, this is because of Dr. Radcliffe and AIDA – probably. Radcliffe is not bad, it is more that he is clearly has no idea what he is doing in S.H.I.E.L.D., and neither does the show. Possibly, in the original plot, before Luke began to work at ‘Blindspot’ instead, the two of them would have been more important, but right now? They are more of a comic relief, and do not feel very necessary to the greater plot – S.H.I.E.L.D. is dealing with the Watchdogs and the ghosts of the Reyes’ family.

Now the ghosts, apparently, have some sort of a scientific explanation going for them – they are victims of a scientific experiment went wrong. The book – Darkhold – is something else, but still, it is just a book…and it seems that AoS is leading back to aliens and sci-fi, rather than the occult. That is strange, since the opening episodes have focused firstly on the Ghost Rider and in Marvel, Ghost Rider is clearly more at home with the occult. (Seriously, check out the Ghost Rider movies (Earth-121347 for those who care).) Put otherwise, it feels as if AoS did its best to sever its’ links with S2 and S3 and the mess that came with them in S4 – and now it is returning back to those seasons, thinking that they can pick out all of the good stuff and leave all the badness behind. They cannot. It is unknown just what exactly happened in the second half of S2, causing an exodus of actors forcing a mass killing-off of characters, but it did, and AoS didn’t handle it very well – just as it hadn’t handled Luke’s departure from their show post-S3. (Lincoln was mentioned once, and his photo was shown once – great going at the being the bigger people, AoS!)

Hellfire/J.T. James (Axle Whitehead) is a typical example of that, his turning on Daisy (and S.H.I.E.L.D.) is not, actually, yet another good idea executed badly. It is yet another sign of an AoS problem – with redemption. Seriously, first, there was Grant and Kara, and now there is J.T. – yet another character who could have been redeemed, and instead began to work with the Watchdogs, (the new Hydra). What is AoS’ problem with redemption? No one knows, (outside of AoS), but this constantly rejected redemption is costing the show some viewers at least. (And how does Coulson’s spiel on ‘second chances’ back when Skye/Daisy messed-up with Miles in S1 fit into this?)

On the plus side, AoS has introduced Reyes’ uncle, (who knows more about the experiment than you might think), Daisy is back with S.H.I.E.L.D., and so is Robbie, (at least for now – apparently, AoS isn’t fully sure yet how the Ghost Rider will fit into their corner of MCU, so he is a recurring character, not a main one, yet).

To sum it up: AoS is devolving currently back to whatever slog it used to be in S3 (and even S2). They are beginning to have problems assimilating the Ghost Rider into their world, (and keeping him the Ghost Rider). They seem to have pet peeves separate from their constant recycling of ideas. And their S4 season seems to be transforming into S2 – revisited.

No wonder, then, that their ratings are going down, overall. One can only hope that AoS will reverse the trend while there is still time. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., Uprising - Oct 11

And so, NYCC ended, and last night AoS has filmed the next installment in its’ 4^th season – ‘Uprising’. This is good?

Well, yes, and I am not talking about the NYCC – this is a separate story completely. The truth is that AoS has found its footing, after S2 & 3 slog, and are seem to be on the road towards recovery, although its’ ratings are still in the lower end of S3 – so far.

There are still two plotlines in AoS S4 – Ghost Rider and the ghosts, and the InHumans and S.H.I.E.L.D. There is also a new face, senator Nadir, but her appearance was brief, and moreover, the point is that AoS has already done this sort of thing in S3 – with Hydra and with InHumans, two plotlines done simultaneously, in alternating episodes. Good for them!

What is sticky is that the fact S.H.I.E.L.D. should know who is behind the Watchdogs – their former agent Felix, who was crippled by Deathlok back in S1, and has returned in S3. At that time, he was being wound-up by Hydra and Hive, but Hive is dead, (hopefully), Hydra is also gone, (supposedly), so now Felix can come into his own.

…Mind you, there are still alternatives – for example, the cities that were affected by EMPs (nice allusion to S1 – but John Garrett IS dead, thank you very much), included not just L.A., Miami and Washington, D.C., but also Moscow, Russia, and London, England – and the president of the U.S. wanted the U.S. army to go there. Is he trying to start WWIII? Is AoS trying to imitate real life? ‘The Donald’ is almost down for the count – and good riddance, but it would be interesting to learn if the president was behind this – and behind the Watchdogs, (including the ex-agent Felix), and behind the senator Nadir, whose brother…

Wait, Nadir’s brother has been petrified by a fish pill (or the Terrigenesis crystal), he probably IS NOT an InHuman. As Raina, Daisy (Skye), and Andrew (Lash) have shown, the actual metamorphosis happens very quickly, and the senator’s brother has been petrified for a while now. This is a reasonable initial explanation why she is against InHumans in general, but still, for the moment let us still clarify this…

Otherwise, ‘Uprising’ was a good episode. It was straightforward. It was clear-cut. It was not even talking about redemption or forgiveness or second chances too much (after S2 & 3? Sorry, this is just hypocrisy). In short, it is a new start, even without Ghost Rider and the occult. Hopefully, this trend will continue in the future episodes to come…

PS: This is the first time Lincoln Campbell was mentioned by name in S.H.I.E.L.D. ever since he died. I wonder just what is the relationship between Luke Mitchell and his former coworkers in AOS currently is.

Dawn of Humanity - Oct 4

…While AoS took this Tuesday off, for some reason, maybe we can talk about something else?  

... Well, what is there else, really? How about ‘Dawn of Humanity’ documentary that I had also seen last week? It is a very interesting, two-hour-long, program about the discovery of two new species – Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi.

From the scientific point of view, the issue is this. There are ancient hominins, ancient humans, sort of like us, but are, (or were), our ancestors, rather than us (from a biological angle, etc.). And then there were the australopithecines, who were the ancestors and the predecessors of these hominins, they – basically – were apes, albeit ones that walked like humans do: it seems that bipedalism has evolved first; other features, such as the big brains and tool making came later.

So far so good. And?

‘Dawn of Humanity’ makes a BIG emphasis about the missing link; in this case between the australopithecines and the first of the hominins. When I was studying anthropology, this niche was given to Homo habilis, the ‘handy man’, but many anthropologists grew dissatisfied with habilis – some think that this was just another australopithecine, while others are just doubtful, period.

This is probably the appropriate time to re-introduce one of Impossible Pictures’ special series – Walking with Cavemen – and what is basically its’ literary counterpart, the book ‘Dawn of Man’. The former is two-hour series dedicated to the entire human evolution; the latter is the same thing, just discussing the prehistoric human evolution in eight chapters. The information may be outdated in some aspects – for example, it does not talk about sediba or naledi because they were not discovered back then – but, basically, this information is still good, actual, and reliable. Is there a problem?

With WWC the issue is that it isn’t a documentary series, but more of a docu-drama, discussing various aspects of human evolution in a rushed manner (each episode is about 30 minutes long and feels kind of rushed, especially the 3^rd and the last episodes). Bipedalism, tool-making and adaptability, intelligence, imagination and the spiritual dimension of human lives is what being really discussed in WWC, rather than human evolution per se, as it was in ‘Dawn of Humanity’…sort of. In reality, ‘Dawn of Humanity’ depicted the discovery of the two aforementioned species with some discussion where did they fit into the evolution from australopithecines to early humans: Homo naledi may be one of the first humans; Australopithecus sediba, on the other hand, is too chronologically old to be the direct ancestor of humans; but-

However, the entire early African stage of evolution that led to humanity is a mess. The documentary made it sound as if it was South Africa that was the cradle of humanity, but in reality, so was the East Africa, and then there is Australopithecus bahrelghazali. It was yet another species of Australopithecus, but it was also found in the jungles of Central Africa, rather than in the African east or south. Indeed, Central Africa is the place where some of the oldest ape fossils – Sahelantropus, Orrorin, and the others – were found.

How is that for a theory? There were several versions of Australopithecines in Africa, maybe species, or maybe – regional variants, (more like subspecies). Eventually, some of these subspecies/variants/species gave rather to the first hominins (naledi, or habilis, or even rudolfensis, which is discussed even less so than the habilis is, apparently), while the others gave rise to Paranthropus boisei and its relatives. It has happened, after all, when a single species gave to rise to several new ones; for example, Homo heidelbergensis gave rise both to the Neanderthals and to the Cro-Magnons, the modern humans. Why couldn’t the australopithecines do that?

In any case, ‘Dawn of Humanity’ was still a very fun and exciting documentary to watch, which I did, and I advise you to watch it as well, especially if you like anthropology. For now, though – bye!